MILTON
MILAN was the third mayor of Camden to be brought down on corruption
charges. Wikipedia describes him as follows:

Milton
Milan is
an AmericanDemocratic politician.
He was the first Latino mayor of Camden,
New Jersey, elected in 1997, before being convicted of corruption
and subsequently removed from office, becoming the third Camden mayor in
20 years to be found guilty of corruption.

He
was elected to City Council in 1995. During his first term as mayor, he
was indicted on a 19-count corruption case, and convicted on 14 of those
counts, among them:

laundered
$65,000 in drug money

staged
a break-in with his former business partner to collect insurance
money

illegally
accepted $30,000 to $50,000 in bribes from the Mafia

used
campaign money to pay for a vacation to Puerto Rico

received
two vehicles and thousands of dollars in free work on his home from
city contractors

and
authorized the shakedown of a $5,000 political contribution from the
city's public defender

The
judge sentenced him to the maximum allowed under federal sentencing
guidelines: seven years and three months in prison minus time served,
and three years of supervision, plus barred from running for office. He
spared Milan a fine, citing the lack of ability to pay. But was held
responsible for $14,761 in restitution.

Camden
Courier-Post - July 20, 1999

September
1999

Camden
Courier-Post * January 7, 2000

Philadelphia
Inquirer * September 30, 2003

Milan
to appear over firing lawsuit
A former aide accuses the former mayor of acting vindictively
after criticism of his policies.

By
Dwight Ott
Inquirer Staff Writer

CAMDEN
- Jailed ex-Mayor Milton
Milan is scheduled to answer accusations in U.S. District Court
today that he wrongfully fired an assistant business administrator
who spoke out against his policies.

Milan,
41, is serving a seven-year sentence in a minimum-security federal
penitentiary in Pennsylvania. It is said that he has been
"born again" and has forgiven his enemies - and that he
has lost weight and is running 10 miles a day. Friends say that
upon his release, he may become a minister.

Milan,
the city's first Hispanic mayor, was convicted in December 2000 of
charges that he accepted payoffs from organized-crime figures,
solicited bribes from city vendors, skimmed money from a political
action committee, and laundered drug money.

At
the time of former assistant business administrator Keith Walker's
lawsuit, filed shortly after Milan's conviction, Milan branded the
allegations a "lie."

Milan
is scheduled to be the first witness in the case, which is
expected to last about two weeks.

John
C. Eastlack Jr., the lawyer hired to defend the city, said Walker
was fired in May 1999 because he failed in his duties as assistant
business administrator. "Because [Milton Milan] was
convicted, it doesn't mean open season on the City of Camden for
anyone who wants to make a claim," Eastlack said in his
opening statement. "It's not about the conviction of Milton
Milan."

Walker,
who is African American, alleges that he was hired in September 1997
at a lower salary and with a different benefits package of an
assistant business administrator, James Reynolds, who is white.

Once
on board, Walker says in the suit, he challenged decisions made by
Milan and other top city officials. In one instance, the suit
alleges, Walker raised questions about a trip Milan had taken to the
island of Dominica.

"Keith
Walker was the conscience of the people and the employees of
Camden," his attorney, Mark Frost, said in in his opening
statement yesterday. "For that he was terminated... . We're
concerned about First Amendment rights and freedom of speech. We
will prove that what he spoke out against cost him his job."

Eastlack
disagreed: "What this case is about is the personal
responsibility of Keith Walker to perform his job he was hired to
do... . There was no violation of Mr. Walker's First Amendment
rights."

Noting
that Walker served as the city's spokesman, Eastlack said that was
an unlikely position for someone whose free speech was being curbed.

Milan
was to be transported yesterday from Loretto, Cambria County, to the
Philadelphia area, Eastlack said.

The
Rev. Ivonne Martinez, a friend and supporter who visited Milan in
August, said the facility was almost like a college campus and that
she saw only about three security guards. She added that Milan
drives around in a golf cart supervising a 22-man maintenance crew
and that he "was doing excellent and was a born-again
Christian."

The
facility is "an open space, no bars, no chains, or barbed
wire," Martinez said. "He said if he wanted to, he could
get in his car and keep going, but he would never do that, he said,
because 'I'm Christian.' He is preaching and practicing the word of
God."

She
said Milan said there were doctors, dentists and lawyers in the
facility.

She
said she believed he would become a Pentecostal minister upon his
release.

She
said he was not bitter: "Milton Milan is thankful to the Lord.
He thanks everybody. Some people think they did this to hurt him. He
realizes it was really God working in his life."